Metaperplexahedron
The Metaperplexahedron, also known as the Metacube, is a cube-shaped superstructure located in the Canes Venatici Supervoid approximately 1.5 billion light-years away from Earth. The Metacube is a successor to the Perplexahedron, a similar cubic superstructure located in the NGC 3049 galaxy 64.9 million light-years from Earth. Both were built by Paradox more than 10 billion years before the present day for the purpose of guarding valuable and dangerous objects. History Paradox began construction of the original Perplexahedron approximately 10 billion years before the present day, prior to the emergence of major galactic civilizations. According to him, the original purpose of the Perplexahedron was not to guard the Map of Infinity, but rather, Paradox built it out of anticipation of the need for "pure isolation" of certain objects. The Perplexahedron was placed in a region of near-total isolation on the outskirts of NGC 3049, a galaxy 64.9 million light-years from Earth. According to Azmuth, NGC 3049 has not developed interplanetary civilizations, and the Perplexahedron was placed in a sparse interstellar region where it would not be discovered. This was both to protect the Perplexahedron's treasure from would-be thieves, and to prevent the Perplexahedron's space-defying properties from too adversely affecting the local laws of spacetime. Additionally, it has been implied that Paradox placed the Perplexahedron exactly 64.9 billion light-years from Earth because of the exact amount of time it would take Aggregor to reach it after leaving Earth, allowing Kevin Levin to ultimately defeat him in the Forge of Creation. The Perplexahedron collapsed after Aggregor stole its piece of the Map of Infinity in 2011. While the original Perplexahedron took Paradox "only" 400 years to construct, the Metaperplexahedron or "Metacube" took more than 8,000 years due to its monumentally larger size and complexity. Paradox considers the Metacube to be a successor to the Perplexahedron, with the original having been a "sufficient prototype." Paradox isolated the Metacube significantly more than the Perplexahedron, placing it in the exact center of the Canes Venatici Supervoid, a vast region 1.3 billion light-years in diameter almost completely lacking in stars or galaxies. This remoteness made it near-impossible to reach, even with the most advanced deep space craft in the universe; according to Azmuth, outside of his own enhanced teleportation technology, no other technology exists in the Milky Way Galaxy enabling travel into the deepest regions of the supervoid. This "perfect isolation" was enacted both due to the extreme space-altering properties of the Metacube and the immense value of its treasure. Description Perplexahedron The Perplexahedron, located on the outskirts of the NGC 3049 galaxy, was approximately 50 miles in width, with a total volume of 125,000 cubic miles - enough to encompass the entire city of Los Angeles. The Perplexahedron was built in approximately 400 years and, according to Paradox, became the "guardian" of the fourth piece of the Map of Infinity shortly after its completion at the behest of "a later me." The Perplexahedron consisted of thousands of rooms which could defy the laws of spacetime in order to shift among themselves, with the only consistency being guards intended to protect the direction leading to the Map of Infinity. Various rooms included death traps which acted as obstacle to those seeking to navigate the structure. The map piece itself was guarded by the Sentinel, a being simulated by the advanced computer superstructures of the Perplexahedron itself, given artificial existence only by proxy of the Perplexahedron. These superstructure computers are advanced beyond even the Galvan. Metacube The Metacube, located in the center of the Canes Venatici Supervoid, was built over the course of 8,000 years and is approximately 60,000 miles in width, with a total volume of 216 trillion cubic miles - near the size of the planet Jupiter. Because of its astronomically larger size than the original Perplexahedron, the Metacube's curvature of spacetime is much larger, especially because it too operates against the natural laws of spacetime; hence its isolation in the supervoid, to prevent it from damaging the spacetime of nearby planets. Like the original Perplexahedron, the interior of the Metacube consists of an expanse of identical rooms with mirrors walls. These rooms are capable of shifting and are even implied to include closed timelike curves, which can result in travelers being moved to earlier or later points in time. The sheer complexity of the Metacube is powered by its internal computing systems, much like the original Perplexahedron. Unlike the first Perplexahedron, which was primarily defended by physical traps, the Metacube utilizes confusion and disorientation to prevent intruders from reaching its treasure. The Metacube operates outside of the ordinary laws of logic, and the internal computers adapt to the natures of each intruder, generating seemingly insurmountable spatial puzzles and impossible topographies to prevent the core from ever being reached. Azmuth described the Metacube's complexity as "beyond comprehension." In addition to this, the Metacube uses its mirrors to generate "Sentinels." Unlike the guards from the original Perplexahedron, the Sentinels, much like the first Perplexahedron Sentinel, are beings generated by the Metacube's computers. These beings assume the form of whatever the intruder finds most "insurmountable." Because of its adaptive nature, the Metacube is said to appear differently to all who enter it. To Max Glenn and his teammates, the Sentinels took the forms of others in the lives of the Helpers who represented emotional blocks for them: Clark and Janice Augen for Betty Augen, Ben Tennyson for Niko Yamamoto, Hunter Cain for Lyssa, and Max Glenn for Max himself. Category:Locations